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i f Ire MeMclJitess of the (Litir 0f Meto-^Tork to its Hiiiljersiti) 




AN ADDRESS 



ALUMNI OF THE UIIYERSITY 



CITY OF XEW-Y'ORK. 



AT THKIR 



TWENTY-FIRST ANNIVERSARY. 



28tli JuxE, 1853. 



By Professoe J: W: DRAPEE, M. D. 



C^ NEW-YORK 

1853. 



-Jt-VS 



X 



%\n %\M\Mm 0f the dj^itu of pto-forli U its Hniljersitn, 



AI ADDRESS 




ALUMl^I OF THE UIIYEESITY 

OF THE 

CITY OF NEW-YORK, 

AT THF.Ill 

TWENTY-FIRST ANNIVERSARY, 

28th JuxE, 1853. 



By Pkofessor J. W. DRAPER, M. D. 






S' NEW-YORK: 

PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION 
1853. 



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\ h ^ ^ 



Wm. C. Maktin, Frinter, 111 Jo?i7i st. N. Y. 






dSttets of tk 3l$$0ciation. 

1853—4. 



PRESIDENT. 

GEORGE H. MOORE 

VICE-PRESIDENT. 

HOAVARD CROSBY. 

SECRETARY. 

WM. R. MARTIN. 



COMMITTEE. 
A. r. SMITH, 

KEY. THOS. H. SKIimER, Jr. 
GEORGE L. DUYCKrN-CK, 
THOMAS B. STIRLING. 



At the Tweuty-first Annual Meeting of the Association of the Alumni of 
THE University of the City of New- York, held in the University Chapel, on 
Wednesday, 29th July, 1853, the following Resolution was unanimously adopted : 
Resolved, That the thanks of this Association be tendered to Dr. John W. 
Draper for liis able and highly interesting Address; and that a copy be requested 
for publication. 

Extract from the Minutes. 

WM. R. MARTIN, 



Secretary. 



ADDRESS 



Gentlemen : 

"When I received your invitation a year ago to address you 
on this occasion, my first intention was to decline the prof- 
fered honor, since there are so many among you, who, by 
profession and practice, are far better fitted for such a public 
performance. If you want an eloquent speaker, yon must 
look for him in the pulpit or at the bar— certainly not in the 
gig of a Doctor. 

But considerations which will presently appear, led me to 
change this intention; and then came the inquiry. What 
shall the address be about ? There is the whole range of lit- 
erature and the whole range of science, but of science you 
have had enough from me. Indeed, as my thoughts wan- 
dered from one topic to another, no matter at what point I 
began, they gradually shaped themselves into the saying of 
something abont the University. 

That this should be the case is not at all surprising. Many 
of the best years of my life have been spent in it — some of 
the happiest of yours. And so it furnishes an appropriate 
subject on the occasion of our present meeting. 

If ever there was an institution misunderstood, it has been 
this. The City of E"ew-York has not comprehended her Uni- 
versity. She has virtually said to it : Thou great Mendicant ! 
what has become of the hundreds of thousands of dollars I 
have given ? Where are those j)romised crowds of youth I 
expected in thy halls ? How is it that in twenty years and 
at all this cost thou hast completed the education of only four 
2 



10 

hundred and iiftj-live persons ? Are there not in my streets 
half a million of people, what is the meaning of these con- 
temptible classes of sixty or seventy annually under thy roof? 
My friends ! you know it is true that this has been the 
feeling, and the University has remained submissive and 
without a reply. From time to time, as emergencies arose, 
generous and religious men here and there have afforded 
relief, but the City has stood aloof. And by degrees there 
have crept in among some of us, misgivings, — nay more, by 
hearing the thing reiterated so often, we may have come to 
believe that our duty has been very imperfectly done. 

Is it not then right and expedient, if there be among us 
one, who from position and connection has the necessary 
knowledge, that he should stand forth and answer? That is 
what I am going to do to-night. I have served the Univer- 
sity for nearly two-thirds of its existence, and sometimes 
under circumstances of responsibility. For what may be 
now said, no one but myself is accountable ; it is not the 
result of the promptings or counsel of any person. I trust 
that what may be presented to you, and through you to the 
public, may tend to awaken a better feeling towards this 
deserving institution. 

Universities have two distinct duties to perform. It is 
their office to increase the stock of human knowledge, and to 
disseminate that knowledge among men. In former times, 
they were the centres round which the cultivators of science 
and literature clustered, and the reputation of many of the 
great European institutions is connected with the discoveries 
made in their walls. Their office of disseminating knowledge 
may be accomplished in many different ways — as by the 
printing of books, or by tuition. "We should remember this 
in coming to a decision as to the actual merit of these 
establishments. In the United States, the measure too often 
applied is the number of students — a standard wholly falla- 
cious. All the world assigns the glory of the immortal 



11 

discoveries of J^ewton to the University of Cambridge; but 
does any one trouble himself to inquire how many students 
were there in those times ? 

Fourteen years ago, there stood upon the floor of the 
Chemical Laboratory of our University, a pair of old-fashioned 
galvanic batteries. Like the cradle of a baby, they worked 
upon rockers, and so the acid might be turned on or off. A 
gray-haired gentleman had been using them for many years, 
to see whether he could produce enough magnetism in a 
piece of iron at a distance, to move a pencil and make marks 
upon 23aper. He had contrived a brass instrument that had 
keys, something like a piano in miniature, only there was 
engraven on each a letter of the alphabet. When these were 
touched, the influence of the batteries were sent through a 
copper wire, and a mark answering to a letter was made a 
long way off. 

It is related that the University of Oxford, six hundred 
years ago, was the scene of a similar incident. A friar, by 
the name of Roger Bacon, invented a brass instrument, in 
the shape of a man's head, which he could cause to speak. 
The public set it down for magic, and the Church taking note 
of it, and other inventions, imprisoned him for ten years. 
In vain he wrote a book on the non-existence of magic. The 
Pope was inexorable. But, in the midst of the dark ages, 
Oxford knew her interests better than ]N'ew-York does in our 
times. With the highest ecclesiastical influences against 
her, she had furnished her philosopher with $10,000 to carry 
on his inquiries — an immense sum for that period. And four 
centuries after, a German traveler relates that he was shown, 
at that town, with pride, a house on which was written, " This 
is the house of Friar Bacon." 

How does the matter stand between the City of ]N"ew-York 
and its University, as respects the invention of the Magnetic 
Telegraph — the invention of the Senior Professor of this in- 
stitution ? What oblifiration is Professor Mokse under to the 



12 

City ? Who is the debtor i Have the mercantile interests 
given to the University one thousandth part of the benefit it 
has conferred on them ? Have not millions upon millions 
been made on the news of the steamships in Halifax and 
Boston ? Do they not send to Is^ew-Orleans and back in a 
single morning ? ]^ay, more ! let ns leave these po(jr and 
perishable interests, and look to grander results. Has any- 
thing been done to bind together this great confederacy of 
Republics, more effectual than those iron wires ? Have they 
not given that consolidation which our greatest statesmen 
saw the value of— and despaired ? Have they not made it 
possible for the Government at Washington to rule over the 
entire Continent? 

But, perhaps, some one may say : All this is very well, 
but such inventions belong rather to the age than to any one 
man, and what Moese did here would soon have been done 
by Steinheil, in Germany, or Wheatstone, in England. 
My good friend, you know nothing about the matter. Long 
after the telegraphic instruments were perfected, it was 
doubtful whether intelligence could be sent to any considera- 
ble distance. It is one thing to send an electric current a 
few yards, and a totally different affair to send it a thousand 
miles. Experiments which had been made under the auspices 
of the Russian Government, by Professor Jacobi, of the 
University of Dorpat, had led to the inference, that the law 
of the conducting power of wires, originally discovered in 
Germany, was correct ; and, in addition, a corroborative 
memoir had been read before the Imperial Academy of 
Sciences at St. Petersburg, by Lenz. At this time, so little 
was known in England as regards this important point, that 
some of the most eminent natural philosophers connected 
with Universities there, embraced tho opposite view. I may 
not be able to make the precise point in dispute clear — it 
was this : A current passing through a certain length of wire 
suffers a certain amount of loss ; — if it should go through a 



13 

wire a thousand times as long, will the loss be a thousand 
times as great? The Russians said yes, the English said no. 
If the former was the case, it Was universally concluded that 
the electric telegraph would not be practicable for any con- 
siderable distance. A series of experiments was made in the 
University of New^York, which established, beyotid all ques- 
tion, the truth of the Russian view j but, at that time, the 
higher mathematics were cultivated in our laboratory as well 
as mere experimenting, and on submitting the results to such 
a mathematical discussion, the paradoxical conclusion was 
brought out, that it is a necessary consequence of that law, 
that after a certain length of wire has been used, the losses 
become imperceptible. You may find a statement of these 
things in SilUmari's Journal » 

Encouraged by this, a party of gentlemen Went with tha 
inventor of the telegraph to a rope-walk near Bloomingdale, 
one summer's morning, and there tested the truth of these 
conclusions on lengths of wire varying from one to some 
hundred miles. The losses of the currents were measured 
by the quantity of gas set free in the decomposition of water. 
The result was completely successful, and telegraphing for 
any distance became an established certainty. 

But let me pursue my argument as to the claims of the 
University on the City, and cite another fact that has come 
under my notice. 

When the French Government, in 1839, purchased of 
Dagueree his invention of Photogenic drawing, its aj)plica- 
tions were very limited— the process was adapted to interiors, 
statuary and architectural subjects ; bat wholly unsuited to 
landscape scenery, or to portraits. The inventor himself had 
made attempts at applying it to the taking of likenesses, but 
had given it up in despair. Soon after the publication of 
Dagueere's invention in America, a series of experiments 
w^as conducted in our laboratory, w^th a view^ of determining 
whether the difficulties could be removed. Under an im- 
pression that the human skin is not white enough, we first 



14 

commenced by dusting persons' faces with flour, intending, 
if this should promise success, to obtain from the ladies a 
knowledge of the mysteries of some of those cosmetics, which 
they are said to use for improving their complexions; but 
We quickly found that the difficulty was not of this, but of 
an optical kind. The result was successful. Those who are 
curious in these matters, will find an account in the London 
and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine, for September 1840. 
The Edinburgh Review, in an elaborate article on the subject, 
gives due credit to the University, and in like manner so did 
the French and German scientific journals. The identical 
instruments employed, still remain in our Cabinet. 

The taking of portraits from the life, by the Daguerreotype, 
is by far the most valuable part of that interesting process. 
It has exerted no small influence on miniature painting, and 
has introduced, as one may say, a new school in that branch 
of the fine arts. 

It has been estimated that more than ten thousand persons 
obtain a support from this application of Science to the Arts. 
There is scarcely a town of any note that does not contain its 
photographers, and though it was said at first that the success 
which had been met with in the University Laboratory, was 
due to the brilliant American sun, the continued superiority 
of American artists in London and Paris, shews that that 
Was scarcely the true cause. It is by no means the least grati- 
fying part of this result, that it has furnished a suitable 
employment for many females. In the existing state of our 
social system, there are few things more worthy the attention 
of good men than that interesting class of the other sex, w^ho 
are thrown upon their own exertions for support. Cut ofif 
from those pursuits in which we may without hesitation 
engage, they are brought in contact with a harsh and pitiless 
world. Are there not thousands whom nature has gifted 
with the acutest sensibilities, who are constrained by the 
tyrrany of Society, to choose between a servile dependence 



15 

or inadequately-compensated labor. Ladies ! I am no advo- 
cate for the so-called rights of women. In the affairs of life, 
jours are the passive and ours the active duties. It is for 
you to reign and for us to govern. But you cannot tell what 
a gratification it has been to me, to have been instrumental 
in introducing an appropriate and beautiful avocation, in 
which many of your sex may engage, without compromising 
a single delicate or womanly feeling ; and in the argument I 
am pursuing in thus setting forth the claims of this institu- 
tion of learning, I feel that your earnest sympathies are with 
me, and that among you the University will find advocates 
for the sake of what it has done in this way. 

The success which has thus been met with, in showing the 
possibility of taking portraits by the Daguerreotype, led to 
an extended investigation of the chemical action of the sun- 
light, which was continued uninterruptedly for more than 
twelve years. A great many interesting and new facts were 
discovered, which, though they excited but little attention 
here, were viewed with interest in foreign countries. The 
papers detailing these, which would form a volume of con- 
siderable size, were re-printed, condensed or criticised, in 
almost every European capital. In the Annual Reports on the 
Progress of Chemistry, made to the Royal Society of Sweden, 
Baron Bekzelius, the highest authority among modern chem- 
ists, spoke of them uniformly with applause, never once with 
critical condemnation. It is an interesting recollection, that 
this great chemist, a few da}^ before his death, sent his por- 
trait with a kind message, conveying his appreciation ot 
what had been done here for Science. A commission of the 
French Academy repeated one of our series of experiments ^ 
and verified its correctness ; a committee of the British 
Association for the Advancement of Science, another. In 
England, one of the most eminent living astronomers. Sir J. 
Herschel, composed a memoir on an experimental illustra- 
tion which had been sent from this place ; and the German 



16 

cliemists repeated a great maiij of our experiments, and 
discussed the explanations we had given. In Switzerland, 
thej habitually re-printed in full or in abstract, the greater 
part of these publications. Indeed, if any of you are desi- 
rous of knowing the particulars of what out* University has 
done in these respects, jou will learn with more correctness 
at the foot of the Alps, than you will in the City of N'ew- 
York. Even in Italy, the experiments made here have 
excited attentive consideration, and some of them have been 
the subjects of a formal and flattering report to the Royal 
Academy at Naples^ by one of its most distinguished mem- 
bers. 

But why should I go on in this way ? What I have said 
has been for the purpose of putting the scientific department 
in a right position before you ; and what I have said, is for 
that purpose, more than enough. Let any, even among the 
most favored colleges of our country, show that it has done 
more. 

Extensive researches, such as are here spoken of, can only 
be carried on at a heavy cost. It will excite a smile among 
you to learn that the amount devoted to the support of the 
Laboratory, and intended also to meet the expenses of the 
course of lectures delivered to the Senior Class, was one 
hundred and twenty-five dollars a year ; and, of late, even 
that has ceased. Yet, during the last fourteen years, the 
actual expenses incurred have been many thousand dollars ; 
and it may, with perfect truth, be said, that the entire sum 
has come, not from the City, iiot from the University trea- 
sury, but from the private resources of a single individual. 

Now, that our accommodations are so much improved, we 
can afford to talk about those times. Our laboratory was 
then in a little, dark back room, without ventilation. The 
morning sun struggled almost in vain to see what we were 
doing — for the window-panes were covered with an incongru- 
ous arrangement of Yenetian blinds and Gothic mullions. 



17 

A hole in tlie ceiling led up into the clmpel above, to the 
pnlpit of which the material for the clailj lecture was carried 
in a tea-tray. I called it a pulpit, because they used to preach 
out of it. A clergyman, who also statedly occupied it, 
regarded it as a pneumatic trough, because I experimented 
in it. And this I think it really was ; for, recalling the Greek 
etymology of that epithet, it plainly indicates the double 
function, spiritual as well as chemical. Our laboratory work 
commenced at seven in the morning, and continued ^ unin- 
terruptedly, till after midnight : and, as might have been 
readily foreseen, what, w^ith the impure air and mental appli- 
cation, the individual chiefly engaged twice contracted a 
fever, and narrowly escaped with his life. 

In this imperfect and brief manner, summing up the case, 
I say that the City has received, directly and indirectly, from 
one department alone of the University, a full return for 
whatever it has given. ISTew^-York is known all over the world 
as a great commercial emporium, but it aspires to be recog- 
nized as the Metropolis of America. For that, there is 
wanted something more than streets of palaces, and extrava- 
gant expenditures in private life — something more than the 
dissipations of fashion. It must have its opera-houses, acade- 
mies of music, its picture-galleries, its collections of statuary, 
great libraries, museums, and costly establishments for the 
culture of science — a better science than that of turning 
tables. With the fast-coming wickedness of Paris, it must 
provide those noble institutions, which are the glory of Paris. 
As yet it is merely in its transition state ; it is passing from 
a town to a metropolis : that state in which money is the 
only source of personal distinction ; — but ten years will put 
an end to such a condition. The question will then be, not 
what does a man own, but, what has he done. In a country 
where there is no landed aristocracy, when a high state of 
civilization is reached, professional distinction will eventually 
over-ride wealth. 

3 



18 

I wIbIi now to present the University to you, under another 
point of view. In 1841, it establislied a Medical Department, 
which, through the exertions of its Faculty, attained at once 
the highest prosperity. At this great school, many thousands 
of students have attended, and about twelve hundred have 
completed their professional education, and graduated. 
These — your brother Alumni — are scattered over every part 
of the Continent. There is scarcely a county into which 
they have not carried the name and reputation of the Uni- 
versity. It is not for me to speak of the men who were the 
founders of that Institution. Some are in an untimely grave, 
the victims of undue intellectual exertion or of anxiety. Of 
those who remain, you will find the names of some connected 
with the profoundest works of philosophical Medicine, and 
the most splendid achievements of Surgery. Doctrines, which 
have been first taught in the public halls of that College, are 
now recognized all over the world, and incorporated in the 
great body of scientific medicine. But I shrink from using 
this language of praise tow^ards those who have been my 
associates, — the dead cannot hear me, and the living it offends. 
Let me confine myself to the inquiry, how the matter stands 
with the City, on this point. 

The entire expenditure of the Medical Department of the 
University, has been, up to this time, probably about $200,000, 
of which not a cent has been contributed by the City. The 
State, at different times, has given about $12,000, and, 
beyond this, everything has been supplied by the exertions 
of the Faculty. It is estimated that upwards of a million of 
dollars have been brought to the City by students, and of 
this a very large proportion has been expended among 
tradesmen of small means, keepers of boarding-houses, &c. 
At the present time this Faculty supplies medical advice and 
medicine to about two thousand destitute persons a year, and 
for some time past, the very existence of the Academical 
Department has hung upon means derived from the Medical 



19 

College. For Diplomas, nearly $34,000 Lave been paid to 
the University. 

Can you point out, in any part of the world, an Institution 
wliicli has done more for the cause of learning and charity ? 
Is not the City deeply indebted to it for the wealth it has 
brought here, for the charities so abundantly dispensed, and 
for the scientific reputation given ? 

From the facts thus presented, you will infer that in two of 
its departments, the Scientific and the Medical, the Univer- 
sity ofiers an example of brilliant success. Then why is it, 
with this before its eyes, that the public persists in the mis- 
understandiDg I alluded to at the outset ? A ready answer 
may be given. 

Public opinion forced the University into a wrong course, 
and gave it, at its inception, a wrong shape. Deriving its 
view of what a University should be from the English eccle- 
siastical institutions, it transplanted here their spirit, and 
even their mechanism. 'No allowance was made for the 
difference of countries or of times. It would have answered 
w^ell, if an American college had immense Church patronage 
to bestow. The self-supporting quality of such institutions 
depends on two things. The right kind of instruction must 
be given, and the pupil must have his means of living fur- 
nished when his education is complete. It is this combination 
which crowds our Medical Colleges. They give a thorough 
education : and that completed, the lucrative practice of 
medicine is the result. It is this which fills West Point — an 
appropriate education — and then the army. 

The remarks I am now making apply to nearly all Ameri- 
can Colleges ; for they have all the same construction, and 
all exhibit the same results — inability to support themselves. 
It is not to be denied that their peculiar arrangement has 
arisen from the influence of the ecclesiastical element. From 
the Revolution no body of men has been so profoundly im- 
pressed with the truth, that the continuance of the American 



20 

system depends on the education of the people, as the clergy ; 
none have more zealously worked for it. Go where yon will, 
from the oldest to the most recently settled States, yon will 
find a clergyman at the beginning of every one of these Insti- 
tutions. The debt of gratitude we owe them, is great indeed 
— so great that it is with hesitation we may criticise their 
labors. But I am speaking to educated men — many of them 
clergymen — and, therefore, speak with that frankness a man 
may use to his friend. It is admissible, even for me, to treat 
the work of these great and good men just as, in a laboratory, 
I would treat some costly and complicated machine, that would 
not work — take it to pieces, and see where the difficulty is. 

In the twenty years now finished, the Academical Depart- 
ment has graduated four hundred and fifty-five persons. This 
represents the work it has done in a community of now more 
than half a million of people. Then it is clearly an indispu- 
table fact, to use language which this mercantile community 
can understand, that we have been trying to sell goods for 
which there is no market. Considering the system of free 
scholarship among us, I presume that less than two hundred 
of those graduates have been purchasers of our wares ; and 
this in twenty years ! 

Well, what are the wares we have b'een oifering? Chiefly 
the classics and literature. For a length of time the expen- 
diture on these two branches was nearly $10,000 per annum, 
while, for the scientific, it was less than $3000. "With this 
preponderating advantage, there surely must be some intrin • 
sic difiiculty, or the result would have been difierent. 

"We need not go far, to find what the difiiculty is. Before 
a youth can enter the University, he must be able to read 
Caesar, Yirgil, Cicero, S alius t, Xenophon and Homer. Now, 
let each of us, clergymen, physicians, lawyers, merchants, 
agriculturists, ask himself, has the occasion ever occurred 
when that amount of classical learning was not enougli for 
our wants ; and all that we attained more, was it not attained 



k 21 

to be forgotten ? Within tlie last fifty years, the times liavc 
wholly changed. Physicians have dispensed with Latin and 
Greek ; lawyers have done the same : even politicians and 
popular orators have ceased to decorate their eloquence with 
classical display. Look at the speeches in the English Par- 
liament) in the time of PrrT, and Fox, and Bukee, or, indeed, 
all through the last century. Look at them now. I am not 
inquiring whether this be for the better or the worse, but am 
dealing with a fact. The style of public oratory has changed 
in this respect ; and what better proof would you have that 
the ideas of the people have changed too. 

Here, then, is the error we have committed. We put 
forth our exertions in a direction in which no result could be 
reached. We relied on the weakest part of the machine, 
instead of the strongest. In this practical community of men, 
hastening to be rich, we found no sympathy. Had we given 
schools of art and science, we should have been in relation 
with the masses ; and— I use the word understandingly — the 
University would have run a glorious career. With every 
disadvantage in that direction, you see what she has actually 
done. 

But some of you are on the point of exclaiming : What ! 
is it possible that you are contemplating a University, in 
which the Classics and Literature should stand in a subordi- 
nate position ? Oh ! no, never. I know, too well, their 
influence on the heart and mind of man ; too well, what they 
have done for our race. I know that the prime duty of these 
institutions is, not to teach men how to get rich, but to make 
them good citizens ; nay, even more, religious men. 

What is there that can better tend to develope those feel- 
ings, which are essential to the continuance of our existing 
social system, than instruction given to our youth, in the lan- 
guage and literature of those illustrious people, who were the 
parents of European civilization 1 How solemn the lesson 
that can be impressed by the teacher who has sat among the 



22 

mins of the Capitol, or whose eyes hare seen the Parthenon ; 
who can contrast the stately pages of Tacitus with the m ^1- 
ancholy aspect of Austrian misrule. But these high results 
are one thing, and little boys translating text books into bro- 
ken English, another ; for, after all, under the system our 
Colleges pursue, the time is not devoted to the philosophy, lit- 
erature, history, of those ancient people— it is wasted in prac- 
tising the mechanical art of translating ; and of our Professors, 
how few there are who have taken the pains, or been at the 
expense, of visiting the countries they are called upon to illus- 
trate. In other branches we should detect such incongruities 
at once. What should we think of a chemist, who had never 
been in a laboratory ; or of a j^hysician, who had never seen 
an hospital? 

It has been too much the practice to speak of these tongues 
as dead languages ; they may have ceased to be vernacular, 
but in their influence they still live. They are the instru- 
ments by which Christianity has been delivered to us. They 
have determined the mode of thought of Europe, and so they 
have become immortal. Nay, more : I do believe that many 
of you will witness great events which their very names sug- 
gest. That dread military monarchy which,'^from the times 
of Petek the First, has been gradually overshadowing the East, 
and w^hich, since the close of the wars of the French Empire, 
has been all but able to dictate to the civilized world, is pre- 
paring to stand forth, the protector of the Holy Places, and 
to assert its rights as the depository of the religion of the 
CiESARS. Of what avail is infidel and distracted France? 
against believing, united, conquering Russia. It is written 
in the Book of Fate that the Bosphorus shall be darkened by 
the breath of her cannon. There are some of you who will 
live to see the quarrel of the middle ages resumed, and the 
Greek Church awakening from its sleep. The walls of the 
Yatican will resound to the pacing of the Muscovite sentinel. 
He who founds his claims on antiquity, must take the conse- 



23 

quences of the fundamental laws of Antiquity. Fifteen hun- 
dred years ago, when Christianity was first recognized by 
law, did not the BishojD of Rome own his allegiance to the 
Emperor ? The gray-haired head of the Latin Church will 
be summoned to acknowledge his revolt of centuries, and 
stand in the presence of his sovereign at Constantinople. 

But, while I thus assert the dignity and value of a study 
of these languages, I consider that in onr college system, the 
pub ic expects from them results which they cannot possibly 
yield. It is but few American youth who care to saunter to 
the fountains of knowledge through the pleasant windings of 
their flowery path ; the majority prefer the less-enchanting 
but more practical way. And for this reason in our semina- 
ries of learning, the practical branches must take the lead 
and bear the weight, and the ornamental must follow. 

The University, even in its Classical and Literary Depart- 
ment, has therefore done its duty. It has done precisely 
what its construction was calculated for. The public voice 
gave it this character, and the public must be contented with 
'the result. What kind of reason is there in the man who is 
not satisfied that his wind-mill grinds flour, but wants it to 
fly too. 

Our records show that considerably more than one-fourth 
of our graduates have entered the ministry, whereas in twenty 
years the Academical Department has furnished but twenty- 
nine physicians. This fact seems to prove, that in public 
estimation, the course we pursue is not regarded as a suitable 
preparation for the study of medicine, and the same may be 
said as respects the study of law. The preparation of young 
men for the ministry is undoubtedly one of the most impor- 
tant duties of a college, and in this respect there is reason to 
think that we compare favorably with the most highly- valued 
and patronized institutions. But then this is only one out of 
many duties. Had such an organization been given, that 
physicians, lawyers, merchants, engineers, agriculturists, had 



24 

found tlio same induceiiients tliat candidates for the ministry 
have done to join our classes, how much more prosperous 
would have been the state of our affairs. 

Among the evils which weigh down American colleges, 
there is none, in my judgment, more powerful than our sys- 
tem of awarding honors. A bachelor's degree is the object 
of the student for four years. Yet what is a bachelor's, or 
what a master's degree? There was a time in Europe when 
they meant something, and conveyed a solid something ; but 
what do they mean, or what are they worth in the United 
States now? You who are perfectly familiar with the work- 
ing of our rules, know well, that so far as the distribution of 
college honors on a Commencement day is concerned, the j^rac- 
tical sciences have scarcely any weight — the classics and liter- 
ature overbear everything. Here, again, I think that those 
good men who, by their patronage and their wealth, have been 
the props of our institutions of learning, have committed a mis- 
take. It is a repetition of the old political blunder of giving 
a forced development by means of bounties. If the position 
of the Christian clmrches was the same now, as formerly, there 
might be some reason for drawing our young men, by such 
incitements, into these lines of study; but since the com- 
mencement of the present century that position has totally 
changed. Mere literary acumen is becoming utterly power- 
less against profound scientific attainment. To what are the 
great advances of civilization for the last fifty years due — to 
literature or science? Which of the two is it that is shaping 
the thought of the world ? ISTone have more thoroughly real- 
ized this great change than the authorities of the Roman 
Church. ISTone recognized its coming earlier. After the 
philosophical troubles in Tuscany, in 1630, was not such a 
policy pursued by them, that among the French and Italian 
Jesuits were to be found the ablest philosophers of the age- 
men who could meet Newton or Leibnitz on terms of equal- 
ity ? The moral force which that order gained among the 



I 



25 



thinking classes was due to this cause ; fcr, no matter where 
it may be found, high intellectuality will command esteem ; 
knowledge is power. The well-turned periods of some pop- 
ular preacher may please the fancy of a Sunday morning's 
audience, but what of that ? The profound conversation of 
the scientific priest, though it may be heard in solitude, per- 
haps under a tree or on a grassy slope, will arrest at once 
the man of thought, make him an unconscious and involun- 
tary missionary, and through him control a whole nation. 

And, therefore, for such reasons as these, I wonld beseech 
those who are friends of American Colleges, to abandon the 
existing system. With an equal hand dispense your honors 
equally in every branch. Make no attempt at inciting the 
student to take an old-fashioned and profitless course, by 
holding forth fictitious rewards, and working on his desire 
for distinction ; that course of study is out of keeping with 
our state of society, and worse than useless to the Church. 
Instead of unm^eaning bachelors' or masters' degrees, and 
valedictory and salutatory addresses, establish distinctions 
which shall appeal to the common sense of the people, — - 
which shall plainly say, this young man was, in such a year, 
the best mathematician, or chemist, or Greek or Latin 
scholar, the University produced. But do not mix all these 
in one inextricable and immeaning confusion. Don't swamj) 
Science by crov/ding into the boat with her the skeletons of 
thirty centuries. Let each department go on its ov/n merit, 
and have its own rewards. Cease from this system of boun- 
ties. Free-Trade will answer as well in a College as in 
Commerce. Let the native bent, the native talent, the native 
instinct of onr young men, find its means of development 
nnshackled, and you will have what you have not now, — 
men in the pulpit who can check the tendency of the age to 
materialism. 

Many of the ablest American scholars look forward to the 
4 



26 

establishment of a State or even JSTational Univei-sitj, with 
ample endowments. You are aware that an organization for 
promoting this object, exists. It is nndonbtedly entitled to 
the most cordial support which every educated man can give. 
But while we regard it in this light, do not let us shut our 
eyes to the difficulties in the way. Practical men, who have 
a thorough knowledge of the University system, and are con- 
versant with the history of the colleges that have been estab- 
lished here or in Europe during the last fifty years, can foresee 
that, even though a million of dollars should be devoted to 
this object, and a score or more of professorships endowed, 
the success would be quite problematical. You have only to 
read the circulars and programmes published at the inception 
of this University. Could there be anything more liberal, 
more comprehensive, than was that scheme ? In carrying 
out such plans in the United States, there will be always 
unavoidable difficulties in the way — ^the various opinions of 
important men, the well meant but prejudicial influences of 
religious sects, legislative interference invoked by the un- 
scrupulous and ignorant, the necessity of conceding place or 
power to unsuitable persons — these, and many other such 
circumstances, would shape such an establishment into a 
system of compromises and expediencies ; and, in spite of its 
w^ealth and patronage, it would be found utterly unsuited to 
the wants of the people. 

These difficulties are all passed by in that condition which 
the University now presents. It has gone through its tran- 
sition state. After twenty years it stands before the citizens 
of E'ew-York with its debt paid, its great Medical College an 
accomplished fact, its Literary Department working success- 
fully under the partial organization which has been given to 
it, — its Scientific, which has already furnished an earnest of 
what it will do, waiting for expansion. I know the feeling 
of its authorities — whatever the City will patronize, they will 



27 

attempt. And tins, I say, is an iniinitelj better condition 
than could be reached at once, in any new and visionary 
scheme. I believe in improving what we have— what it has 
cost ns twenty years and half a million of money to produce. 
I do not believe in wasting our exertions on novelties — which 
may turn out to be phantoms. Eo man can, in a moment, 
devise the plan of a University exactly suited to the wants 
of ^ew-York. To be successful, we must pursue a tentative 
scheme — we must feel the way. We have lived through all 
those trials which are the necessary incidents of the early 
period of these Institutions, and have at last reached that 
position in which existence is no longer problematical, but 
our stability is assured. We are ready to be put in relation 
with the City. 

Put in relation with the City, some one exclaims — what 
do you mean by that ? I will tell you. There are in this 
City and its vicinity, three-quarters of a million of people, 
and from them we draw sixty students. We are oifering 
what the City does not want. Our classes now are about the 
same that they were eighteen years ago — but in that time 
the City has more than tripled its population, and as to wealth 
and resources, increased a thousand fold. We have not 
grown with its growth, and this is what may be called not 
being in relation with the City. 

What is it that constitutes the chief cause of that rapid 
advance which New-York is making in power and wealth ? 
Industrial knowledge and industrial activity. There must be 
an affinity between the wants of the city and the nature of 
its institutions. Of what use would it be to transplant here 
German or French, or even English Universities? Their 
constitution may be suitable for European countries, but ia 
utterly inapplicable here. This City, though great and pros- 
perous, is only at the beginning of its greatness and prosperi- 
ty. In twenty years it will be the centre of the Commerce 



28 

of tlie whole world. Its existing institutions of knowledge, 
if they do not conform to its needs, wdll find themselves 
abandoned or superseded. 

We therefore, come to the conclusion, judging from the 
representations made here this evening, that what has been 
done thus far, in the University, is good ; but that having 
made provision for the education of ministers of the Gospel 
of any religious denomination, and of physicians, and of lite- 
rary men, there is next before us the great task of dealing 
with the true strength of IS'ew-York — its commercial classes, 
manufacturers, engineers, and mechanics ; — the men who 
have little concern in knowing what was said or done in 
Athens or Rome, two thousand years ago, but who are cra- 
ving for a knowledge how they shall conduct the business 
enterprise they are to enter on to-morrow. Let us hold fast 
to that which we have, and develop as quickly as we may. 
Our instinct is to satisfy the wants of the City. Let us 
remember that doctors, lawyers, and preachers, constitute only 
a small portion of the community. Let us address our exer- 
tions to that class, which, in som^e places, is the terror of 
great communities, but which here, if submitted to the influ- 
ence of science and letters, will surely form the guard of 
public order. Let us, in a good cause, act boldly, and hoist 
the flag of free instruction of an evening, for the artizans of 
NeAv-York, and trust to the City to see us safely through. 
Let us take counsel with those influential men wdio have 
hundreds in their employ, and try whether we cannot set a 
fashion that will bring them here. What nobler spectacle 
could be oflered than this chapel, crowded with those brave 
men who constitute our fire and military forces, listening to 
literary and scientific discourses, in their holiday dresses, 
after the toils of the day. I heartily join in the sentiments 
recently expressed by an eminent clergyman, and trust that 
the time is not distant wdicn we shall see the !New-York 






29 

Mechanic j)fissing up tlie steps of the University, and depos- 
iting the tools he has been nsing, behind the lecture-room 
door. Gentlemen, when that comes to pass, you will hear 
no ]nore of the want of money. The University will then be 
in fact, what it is now in name — University of the City of 
E"ew-York. 

J consider that the position of the University is such, that 
it can no longer afford to be stationary — it must be progres- 
sive, and it will increase in strength just in proportion as it 
meets the wants of the people. I believe that a policy of a 
gradual expansion is its true policy — expansion in any di- 
rection that may be open. I have no faith in a sudden mush- 
room growth — no expectation of seeing a University rise, like 
an exhalation, out of the ground. A tree or an animal, trans- 
ported hither from some other region, must either accommo- 
date itself to our seasons and physical condition, or languish 
and die. Even men must be acclimated. Experience is 
every w^here shew^ing us that the educational system of Europe, 
transplanted here, wdll not succeed ; and though good men 
have spared no pains, and have lavished their wealth upon 
it, it is an exotic that does not suit the climate ; and there 
yet remains to spring from the American soil an indigenous 
growth, developed under our own particular influences, which 
shall rise, as the Indian corn-plant overtops the grain-grasses 
of Europe, and like it, profusely furnish abundant food for 
the people. 

SupjDose, now, that the remarks I have been making should 
come to the knowledge of one of those wealthy and far-seeing 
merchants, who may be found in New- York, and that he 
should say to himself, " I never knew until now the position 
of that Institution, nor that it had done so much for the 
reputation of the City, nor that it is so capable of ministering 
to our rising greatness. What can more effectually tend to 
develop the internal resources of our nation, to enable our 



30 

manufacturers to compete with those of Europe, to unfold 
the talent for invention, which is almost characteristic of us, 
tlian the dissemination of practical science? I will take the 
lead in this plan of furnishing our people industrial knowledge ; 
and as a beginning, I will create and endow, in that Univer- 
sitj, the best chemical laboratory in the world, which may 
be a centre of information for our manfacturers, engineers, 
miners and artizans, and I will give it my name." 

Suppose, now, that this should occur ; then, gentlemen, 
the object of my address to you, this evening, is accomplished. 



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